


:reCovery

by Ziba



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: F/M, i'm embracing the "hide is in the hospital" theory with all my force, the pairing is there only if you see it actually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 13:19:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6196561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ziba/pseuds/Ziba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the six month between the E.T.O., and the start of the Rue Operation, the meeting between two ex-Antiku workers happen in the most unexpected place, an hospital room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	:reCovery

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr, it was the first fanfic I ever published. Criticism is appriciated!

The smell of disinfectant always hit Touka’s nose fiercely. She didn’t have particularly strong senses, but everytime she entered the hospital she had to force herself not to show how much it affected her.

She held the bouquet of flowers closer to her face, hoping to cover the stinging smell with the gentler floral scent. The sound of her heels hitting the smooth and spotless floor echoed through the white corridor. She arrived at the familiar counter, behind which stayed two nurses, whispering vividly to each other. Touka greeted them politely, as she has been for the past years.

Usually, to her sober “Good morning”, another greet followed, and with it a pitiful glance. Since the first time she has visited the comatose young man, the nurses had assumed she was some sort of girlfriend of his, even though she had introduced herself as a mere aquaintance.

That day was different. The nurses elbowed each other into silence, with perplexed and excited looks on their faces. Touka didn’t think much of it. She was late for her visit, and only had an hour free, before returning to her coffee shop for work. She moved toward the familiar door, but one of the nurses, an old woman, stood up and jogged after her.

-Miss, oh miss, please wait a minute. I’m sorry, but you cannot enter.- she cried, and panted as if she had run a marathon. Touka raised an eyebrow, thinking that it would be enough to get an answer. But her hair covered the eyebrow, so she had to voice her inquiry.

-What’s going on? Did something happen since last time I was here? Did he get worse?- she started growing worried, as the nurse looked worringly at her.

-None of the like, miss. A young man arrived earlier, and said he didn’t want to be disturbed.- A young man thought Touka, but it clicked in her mind immidiately, who that could have been. The nurse went on, ignorant of the younger woman thinking. -I asked what was his connection to the patient, as we are always expected to do in this kind of situation, and he just said, with the creepiest of smiles “I am a friend of his and there” and he showed me an ID card “as you can see, I’m a CCG investigator. Now please, will you allow me to visit him?”. There was no way I could deny him that, so here, that’s what happened. He looked pretty important, and I’d rather not enrage a cop, if you know what I mean.- Touka immediately understood what the woman was trying to tell her: “I don’t want any trouble”.

-Well, whoever this friend is, he hasn’t shown his face for the past four years, so I don’t think he has any right to decide who can enter and who cannot.- she said, but her words had no bite, since they were only meant to persuade the woman to let her go.

She saw just the tiniest of esitation, and that was all that took her to slip into the room and close the door before her. She took a deep breath, trying to control the emotion building up inside her chest.

She turned around, and saw an head of black hair. Actually, she saw an entire figure of black, exception being bright red gloves. A shiver went down her spine at the sight of the black suitcase, a dread that was written in her DNA. The figure was looking back at her, grey eyes behind roung spectacles.

Touka had seen that body few months ago, at her coffee shop. It was fairly different, to be honest. Not just its choice of clothing, much lighter, or the bi-coloured hair, partly black and partly white, but it was the whole air around it that was dissimilar: it had seemed happy, or as happy as Kaneki Ken could be. But now, that same body seemd the very opposite of happy, which is not sad, but anguished, torned from the inside. 

But Touka was no poetress, so while she had felt this impression, she could not quite put it into words of her own. She just quickly realized, fully realized, what she had been harbouring into her mind since rescuing Tsukiyama: that her plan of letting him be, letting him be happy and content, was not working, for an important part was missing: the part of him being happy and content.

Kaneki, or Sasaki, or whatever name he was using at the moment, looked at her, and smiled at her.

That’s the most fucking false and savage smile I’ve ever seen in my life.

-Good morning, miss.- he started. I thought Bastardyama said he had recovered his memories. Was he wrong? Or are you just pretending to still not remember? What game are you playing? -I thought I had been clear with the nurse outside. I do not wish someone else to be present while I visit.-

His polite tone gave her the chills.-Well, the nurse told me so, but I don’t have much free time, so you’ll excuse me if I’ll go on with the routine I spent years perfectioning.- Her answer came out a bit too harsh, but didn’t feel guilty about it. And she felt guilty about not feeling guilt. She approached the table near the head of the bed, where a vase with old wasted flowers, and changed them with the fresh ones.

-The nurses told me about it, that there was a girl that came here once a week every week.- he nodded to himself, and turned back to the lying person in the bed. For seconds, the only sound was the life support machine’s beeping, and Touka messing with the flowers. -I didn’t think it was you, to be honest.-

-And who am I exactly?- this time, no cruelty could be found in her voice, only bitterness. She asked with no intention of starting a polemic, just to understand how much she could say. Her plan had probably failed, but she had no intention of furthering scathing it with some inappropriate words.

-You are :re’s manager, are you not?- he answered innocently, eyes fixed on his comatose friend’s facial features, either trying to remember them, or to secure their memories in his mind. -You are miss Yomo?-

She had forsaken her father’s surname for security, and had taken her “brother’s”. But she had never introduced herself to him as such. She hasn’t introduced to him at all, actually. Haise Sasaki never asked her name. -You are right. And you are mr Sasaki, right? Why are you here? How do you know Hideyoshi?-

Kaneki blinked for a moment, as if lost, as if trying to not to something, probably correcting her. She could read it in his face, that “He wants to be called ‘Hide’, not ‘Hideyoshi’”. But he quickly recovers, and the cold expression is back in place. His comeback is as glacial. -I used to knew him. It’s because of me that he is in this condition.- he dropped on a chair, and adjusted his glasses. Touka took another chair and placed it on the other side of the bed, so that the pair was looking at each other faces, separated by the ill.

What should I do, what should I tell you? I can’t make the same mistake I made last time. I can’t punch you, even though you’d probably need it, if what I’ve heard is true. You became a murderous machine, you left Hinami rotting in Cochlea, and if it were anyone else, they would have already been hit. 

Are you a victim or a butcher?

-Why are you here, miss Yomo?-

Now was her time to blink, since she had been so lost in thought that she had to wait an instant before being able to answer.

-I’m here for a friend. He couldn’t take care of Hide himself, but I’m sure he would have liked to know that someone was at his side.- Touka opened her purse, and took out a book.

-I think he would have been grateful.- Kaneki whispered, and intertwine his hands before him. -You are a good person.-

At that she chuckled. -Of all the thing people have called me, a good person is the least that suits me.- she opened her book at the bookmark.

-What does :re stands for?- the young man asked abruptly, completely changing subject.- I have been wondering for some time.-

Touka tried to sit more comfortably, and then, for the first time that morning, looked straight into his eyes, and smiled, a smile that was a little bit sad and a little bit troubled. -It stands for whatever people want. To me, :re is a place that became my home, even though I wanted it to be a home for my friend. A place he could return to and feel at home, surrounded by people who care for him, not matter what he did or how he had lived before.- The young woman watched him taking his glasses of, and wiping something away from the corner of his right eye. When he lifted his gaze, he didn’t put the spectacles back, and for a moment, he looked like his eighteen-years-old self. It lasted just a moment, though. Then the wariness, the bitterness and the cynism crept back on his face, with his glasses. -I really hope he’ll find his way back to us.- She finished, her voice thin yet ringing through the room.

-I don’t know if he will- admitted the other, with a deep, old, tired voice -but I hope you’d still be happy, even if he doesn’t.- he smiled a real smile, tiny but felt.

She didn’t reply, just noticed that his hand was nowhere near his chin, and so probably he was telling the truth. Don’t tell me you are planning to go on with that tragic hero bullshit, please. I thought we both had grown.

-I always read to him. Neither of us like books, actually, but I choose books that may help his recovery. Do you mind if I do?- she held up a book, showing him the cover page.

-I don’t mind. Please, read, Touka.-

**Author's Note:**

> First things first: Thank you for reading this far. Even if you are about to say that it sucks, thank you because you read it even if it sucked.
> 
> A few informations:
> 
> -There’s very little Hide, but I made it so on purpose. Hide can make Kaneki’s happiness by just standing there, and he was the reason Tragedy Boy was reunited with the Queen, and had a moment of “Hey, people actually like me, that’s new”
> 
> -Takes place in the latest time skip
> 
> -You can decide which book Touka was reading
> 
> -I wanted to add a scene were Touka shaved Hide’s beard, to show how this has become normal to her, but then forgot decided it would have made this far too long
> 
> -If this was Japanese, the last word would have been Touka-chan. But since I feel like not adding honorifics in my English fanfic, I just wrote “Touka”. Read it Touka-chan and let the feels overwhelm you


End file.
